Bits of Coloured String
by Nozomi
Summary: [Ficlet] [Fluff] Imprisoned in a storage room by Malik's Rare Hunters, Téa and Mokuba talk about life and Téa discovers that Mokuba has a few things he'd like to get off his chest. [MokubaTéa]


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Bits of Coloured String

"Téa?"

The brunette girl paused from where she'd been absently contemplating her painted fingernails. "Yeah?" Téa tilted her head slightly in Mokuba's direction so that she had a better view of the boy.

After the ebony-haired preteen had revealed his knowledge of the ultra-powerful God Cards early on, the two inhabitants of the storage room had lapsed into silence, despite Téa's cheerful attempts at casual chatter. Both had fallen deep into their own musings, whatever those thoughts might have been of, and for a long while the blue-eyed girl hadn't heard so much as a peep out of her pseudo-roommate, who had retreated into a darkened corner. Her attempts at cheerful banter to take their minds off of current events had been met with monosyllabic retorts that the girl usually only associated with the older Kaiba brother, and eventually she had ceased her advances altogether, feeling vaguely uncomfortable and not wishing to look more the fool.

Téa could make out the slight rustle of fabric and the faint squeak of rubber on linoleum as Mokuba moved forward, and was surprised to see, when an errant shaft of light played upon the boy's features, that his cheeks were slightly damp. He had been crying, and she hadn't even noticed.

What kind of friend was she, to not have noticed something like that? Téa wondered guiltily. 

Dust and dirt mingled with tears on Mokuba's cheeks, making him appear younger and even more innocent than usual, and the brunette recalled her earlier despairing thoughts on keeping her stark-white blouse clean in such dusty conditions. She had dismissed the idea as frivolous and materialistic, especially in light of all that was happening.

"What is it, Mokuba?" she, asked, smiling softly at the child; he looked so vulnerable as he was, in those clothes that looked to be a size too large for his small frame.

Mokuba hesitated for an instant, leaf-green eyes dropping downwards, before he seemed to make up his mind on something. "...How did you and Yugi meet?"

She blinked. _That_ was terribly unexpected. "Yugi?" She pursed her lips slightly, in thought. "Well, when I first saw him, he was always being picked on by bullies much bigger than he was, and I felt sorry for him. I helped him whenever I could, but I couldn't do everything." 

Téa paused, and for the tiniest fraction of a moment her sky-blue eyes turned sad and distant. "Then when he, Joey and Tristan became friends, the bullying just... stopped. Suddenly." The girl bit her lip, mind contemplating an errant thought that seemed to trouble her. "That was about the time he started wearing that Millennium Puzzle of his..."

She blinked, and suddenly seemed to come back to herself. Her lips formed back into a cheerful smile. "Why do you ask?"

Mokuba shook his head self-consciously, tendrils of jet-black hair fanning out across his forehead and falling into his eyes. "No reason..."

When it became evident that she was to receive no further explanation as to Mokuba's odd curiosity, she sighed, and shifted a bit closer to the boy, but didn't press. "Yugi and Kaiba will come for us, Mokuba. I just know it!" She gave him her most encouraging smile. Curiously, the younger Kaiba flushed and looked away, lowering his head so that black hair shadowed emerald eyes.

In the silence that followed, Téa could clearly hear the sound of Mokuba breathing, roaring in her ears so loudly because it was the only sound in the room besides that of her own breathing.

"Mokuba?" She began at last. "...Is there something that's bothering you? You know I'll always be here to help, right? Even if you only need someone to talk to."

The boy's head lifted slowly, piercing green meeting her own blue gaze. Mokuba shifted to sit cross-legged on the dusty floor, facing her. After a long, deliberating moment, he spoke, voice quiet but potent, very much like his esteemed older sibling.

"I'm like Yugi, I think."

When Téa's only reply was to tilt her head slightly, ignoring for the moment the troublesome brown hair that hung into her clear blue eyes, Mokuba continued, gazing down at the dirty linoleum they were seated on.

"...My friends at school, they pick on me. Not physically," he amended when Téa's eyes narrowed slightly. "If they did, they know my big brother could-all-too-easily have their parents fired..." Mokuba trailed off, a note of bitterness creeping into his voice.

Téa's eyes softened, her heart going out to the boy. "What do they say, Mokuba?"

"I... They call me a nerd 'cause I read all the time, and a girl because of my hair," the green-eyed boy's hand clenched into fists. "And then they say that I'm weak and a crybaby because I always run to Seto for help instead of solving my own problems, and I know they're right, and I can't tell Seto!" he finished in a rush of long-buried emotion, breath whooshing out of him in one great sigh. His fists relaxed and his fingers uncurled themselves, but now he was shaking. He wouldn't meet Téa's eyes.

"That's not true." Téa said firmly. Mokuba's eyes snapped up to stare at her in surprise.

"It's not." She repeated, deliberately not breaking eye contact with the young boy. "You're not weak, and Kaiba loves you, and only wants to keep you safe and protected." She nodded in his unwavering, liquid gaze. "And liking something a lot doesn't make you a nerd, Mokuba. Yugi was obsessed with games and puzzles when I met him, and you don't think he's a nerd, do you?"

Mokuba swallowed, shaking his head.

"My point exactly. And as for your hair," she reached out and brushed a few ebony strands out of his eyes, "I like it. I think it makes you look adorable."

Mokuba scrunched up his nose at the comment. Ohh, he would never live that one down. Why did everyone keep calling him stuff like that, anyway? If it wasn't 'cute' it was 'kid.' "Thanks."

Téa gave him another of her soft smiles. "No problem. Besides, if your so-called 'friends' treat you like that, then they're really not your friends, are they?"

He shifted slightly, sending little clouds of dust to dance and sparkle in the thin beams of light that fell into the room. "I guess not..."

"But that's all right, because we can be your friends. Me, Yugi and the others, if you'd like."

Liquid green eyes lit up in delight. "You mean like you're friends with Seto? You'd really be friends with me?"

"Er... yeah." That comment about being friends with Kaiba had caught her slightly off guard, but she rallied valiantly. "Friends stick together through everything. You can never have too many friends."

"Thank you!"

And she suddenly had an armful of Mokuba Kaiba. Téa smiled and patted his back soothingly, but was just as surprised as he must have been when he pulled back slightly to plant a chaste kiss on her right cheek. Her hand stilled in surprise, and he pulled back and out of her arms, scrambling back into his little, dark corner. A dusting of red grew across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks as he fled.

There was brief, tense moment where neither of them spoke, and then Mokuba's hesitant voice reached her ears.

"Téa?"

"Yeah?"

"...Thank you."

She smiled. "It's OK, Mokuba. Everything's going to be all right. I can feel it." And right then, she really didn't know if she meant about everything in general, or about him. Perhaps it was both.

Mokuba didn't reply, but she fancied that, even through the shadows, she could almost see his lips curl into a smile.

~OWARI~

And there it is, folks. I got the idea for a fluffy Mokuba/Téa moment after watching yesterday's episode, when the Rare Hunters lock them in that room with all the boxes. Hope you enjoyed, especially see as this is my very first fic/ficlet that is strictly het. Wow.

Anyway, I was trying to keep these two IC while also making the fic go the way I wanted to, and I think that I succeeded, but I'm not totally sure. C&C? Please?


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